Public safety agencies responding to an incident (for example a building fire, a criminal pursuit or other law enforcement activity, a natural disaster, a medical incident, a traffic accident, and the like) may coordinate response efforts using wireless communications devices. The wireless communications devices communicate data, video, voice, and other traffic through one or more network sub-systems (for example, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless network) providing communications coverage at or near the area of the incident. Two or more network sub-systems may be connected to form an incident area network. In an incident area network, wireless communications devices may handover between the sub-systems (that is, transfer from one network sub-system to another) as the devices move around the incident area. Each network sub-system in an incident area network includes applications for providing services to the wireless communications devices. Some types of applications may have an instance in each sub-system making up an incident area network, while other types of applications may have an instance in only one sub-system within the incident area network.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.